Broncos insider refutes report that Steelers’ Russell Wilson had to have playbook “dumbed down” in Denver

Following some comments from NFL reporter Aditi Kinkabwala of CBS Sports regarding Russell Wilson's tenure in Denver, many were taken aback. 

Kinkabwala insinuated that Wilson had to have the playbook "dumbed down," by HC Sean Payton. 

Well, reporters close to the team beg to differ:

Wilson Rumors Need Context

“Well, they [Denver] were doing that [two-word play calls] anyway, because that’s what Sean Payton does with his personnel groupings because they shuffle in and out all the time,” Ryan Edwards and Benjamin Allbright said on a Broncos Country Tonight episode with Grant Smith in regards Kinkhabwala’s claim that Wilson struggled with the play-calling. “That doesn’t have anything to do with Russ and the play calls...

"...The idea that Wilson can’t get verbose play calls is frankly stupid, Russell Wilson had his best season under Brian Schottenheimer, who has famously long, verbose play calls.”

The response stems from what Kinkhabwala said last week about Wilson:

“He [Russell Wilson] was constantly climbing out of the back of the pocket. He struggled with snap counts. He couldn’t manage or handle the play-calling,” Kinkhabwala said of Wilson’s tenure in Denver during an appearance on The Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show. “They went from putting a wristband on [him] to by the end of the season, all the play calls had to be two words and everybody else was required to know what the play calls were."

Those claims always came across as hyperbolic, seeing as Wilson is a nine time Pro Bowler with a Super Bowl ring, who as Edwards and Allbright described, played under the verbal stresses of one of the league's most complex schemes during his time in Seattle. 

But even if he had not, you don't make it as long and as far as Wilson has without being able to recite play calls. Honestly, that's elementary stuff in terms of pre-snap difficulties at the QB position. 

So what seemed like a hit job from Denver and more specifically HC Sean Payton from the beginning is all but confirmed.